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Friday, June 30, 2017

A More Scientific Creation Story

Picture Book:Older Than the Stars

Author: Karen
C. Fox

Illustrator: Nancy Davis

Summary: Written similar to The House That Jack Built, an old cumulative rhyme, the phrasing in the central text of this picture book repeats and builds rhythmically. Below I give the entire cumulative rhyme. On each page there is a more detailed section of text to help with understanding. That's what I'm mostly summarizing here. The
key idea in this beautiful picture book is that every one of us (every bit of
us) was created in The Big Bang.

Billions of years ago, our universe began very small, but immediately it began expanding “like the fastest growing bubble ever.”

Small
bits called protons, neutrons, and electrons began buzzing about “like a bunch
of bees.”

Once the bits started “bumping into each other” and
forming atoms, the building blocks of our universe were being formed.

Helium and hydrogen were formed first so giant gas clouds (“puffs”) spun from those building blocks to make stars.

These stars eventually died and formed supernovas, exploding to further distances and allowing their atoms to form new metals along with new stars.

As one particular cloud “flattened out like a giant plate” our star was born.

Other stuff began to collide “in dusty clumps,” becoming planets.

Over time on our planet, atoms came together to form tiny living
creatures which evolved to be bigger and more complex.

These plants and animals were all made from that same atomic stuff and when those living things died their stuff was released to provide for future life on our planet. About 600,000 years ago the human animal appeared. Then humans had children again and again.

"You are one of these children, descended from the first humans," perhaps from the same atoms that "formed stars long ago and far away."

Here's the ending cumulative rhyme:These are the people just like you

Who live with the plants and animals, too,

That grow on the planet green and blue

That circles the sun, our daily view,

That was born from the dust, so old and
new,

Thrown from the blast intense enough

To hurl the atoms so strong and tough

That formed in the star of red-hot stuff

That burst from the gas in a giant puff

That spun from the blocks

That formed from the bits

That were born in the bang

When the world began.

Hanna’s Comments: I offer this book to those in ministry who would
like to have a more scientific framework to approach the concept of creation
and Genesis chapters 1 and 2. I learned to appreciate those poems all the more
after viewing Rob Bell’s video Everything
is Spiritual. He did a 2nd version of this presentation in 2016 that is also on Youtube, but it was the 1st version which I found so amazing. Check
it out [here]. Thanks to the concrete phrasing in this picture book (see
several quotes above), the incredibly complicated phenomenon of The Big Bang as the origin of our universe is understandable
to children and adults like me who are not scientifically inclined. If you are
looking for a book about evolution that is for young children, I highly
recommend Grandmother Fish: A Child’s
First Book of Evolution by Tweet & Lewis. [Here’s] the Amazon link. It also
has very accessible information in the back to help you understand evolution at
a level more complicated than the text of the story.

Original Publisher & Date: Charlesbridge, 2011

Age & Grade Appropriateness: 6 and up, 1st and up

Formats other than Book: None at present

Scripture Connections: Genesis 1 & 2

Idea(s) for Application: Read this book to a group of children when wanting
to pair a more scientific approach to creation with the poetry of Genesis 1 and
2.

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